ANDREW BIRD & PHOEBE BRIDGERS – I Felt A Funeral In My Brain (Emily Dickinson)

Made in collaboration with the Emily Dickinson Museum featuring handwritten transcripts & footage of Emily Dickinson’s lifelong home.

Andrew Wegman Bird is an American indie rock multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. Since 1996, he has released 16 studio albums, as well as several live albums and EPs, spanning various genres including swing music, indie rock, and folk music. Wikipedia

Phoebe Lucille Bridgers is an American singer-songwriter. Her indie folk music typically centers around acoustic guitar and electronic production, with melancholic lyrical themes. She has received four Grammy Awards from eleven nominations. Wikipedia

Lyrics from Emily Dickinson’s original poem “I felt a funeral in my brain”:

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, And Mourners to and fro Kept treading – treading – till it seemed That Sense was breaking through –

And when they all were seated, A Service, like a Drum – Kept beating – beating – till I thought My mind was going numb –

And then I heard them lift a Box And creak across my Soul With the same Boots of Lead, again, Then Space – began to toll

As all the Heavens were a Bell, And Being, but an Ear, And I, and Silence, some strange Race, Wrecked, solitary, here –

And then a Plank in Reason, broke, And I dropped down, and down – And hit a World, at every plunge, And Finished knowing – then –

And then I heard them lift a Box And creak across my Soul With the same Boots of Lead, again, Then Space – began to toll,

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, And Mourners to and fro Kept treading – treading – till it seemed That Sense was breaking through –

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, Ink. Emily Dickinson poems, MS Am 1118.3, (53c). Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Images courtesy of the Emily Dickinson Museum. Videography by CN1 Productions.

The Emily Dickinson Museum comprises two historic houses in the center of Amherst, Massachusetts, including the Homestead, which was the birthplace and home of Emily Dickinson. It is the Museum’s mission to spark the imagination by amplifying Emily Dickinson’s revolutionary poetic voice from the place she called home. EmilyDickinsonMuseum.org